The present invention relates to an improvement in a compressed food product which may be easily broken down for consumption and more specifically, to a compressed bean based composite which is economical to store and transport and which may easily be re-hydrated for consumption.
The edible bean industry has been rapidly expanding in many areas. This expansion of the industry has created a surplus of bean byproducts such as splits and chips which are basically broken whole dried beans. These bean byproducts have an equal food value to whole beans but a very limited market and subsequently, a very low monetary value. Often times these bean byproducts are used as animal feed rather than for human consumption merely because visually, due to their broken nature, they are unsatisfactory for human consumption or sale. Further, even though these products have been deemed unsatisfactory, they have a certain cooking advantage over whole beans. It is well known that cracked and split beans cook at a faster speed as they have more surface area than a whole bean for the same amount of product, thus reducing cooking times.
It is well known that beans can provide a great deal of protein at a very low cost. It is also known that the quality and digestibility of beans can be improved by consuming them with cereal grains. Beans are a rich source of lysine, which is low in cereal grains. Cereal grains are high in methionine and other sulphur amino acids, which are low in beans. When beans and grains are served together in dishes like beans and rice, they provide a complimentary protein mixture.
The processing of rice and other grains often produces the same types of byproducts as discussed with beans. These chipped or split byproducts of grains, such as rice, are rarely sold for human consumption and normally may be sold for animal feed, again resulting in a very low monetary value.
Currently, even in disaster or poverty stricken regions, beans, rice and other grain products are shipped in bulk form while still allowing for the waste of the chipped or split products. Further, products in bulk form may present added shipping costs as well as packaging and distribution inconveniences.
From this discussion it can be seen that it would be desirable to produce a product that could be both nutritious and tasty, easy to transport and store and allow for the utilization of chipped or split products which are currently being wasted. In addition it can readily be seen that it would be desirable to condense and package for distribution and transport these products for all uses including use in disaster or poverty stricken regions.
It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide a method of making use of an existing surplus of bean byproduct to produce a compressed bean cake that is an otherwise overlooked food source.
It is an additional objective of the present invention to provide such a method of producing a compressed bean cake which makes use of the bean byproduct in conjunction with a relatively small percentage of rice or other similar grain and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals to produce a food source that is extremely high in nutrient value.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide such a method of producing a compressed bean cake that will provide an inexpensive food source that can be easily used in relief efforts in poverty, disaster, and famine stricken areas and countries.
It is a still further objective of the present invention to provide such a method of producing compressed bean cakes which can be easily and inexpensively stored and shipped which also aids in their intended use in national and international relief efforts.
These objectives are accomplished by making use of cracked and split beans which are whole uncooked dry beans that have been broken into smaller pieces and are a natural result of the harvest and production methods used in the creation of the wide variety of bean products available in the market place today. The type of beans that are most commonly used in this are either black beans or pinto beans or some combination of the two, but the processes described here will work equally well with most any type of dry edible bean that are commonly available. These cracked and split beans are widely considered undesirable and are usually separated out and either discarded or used in animal feeds, neither of which provide a significant source of income to the producer.
The present invention is made up of these cracked and split beans and combines them with rice or other similar grains, along with a wide variety of supplemental vitamins and minerals and, by the use of a binding agent, is formed into a short cylindrically shaped cake. The binding agent is most commonly a potato flour or other similar starch that is mixed in with the other ingredients and which has the sole purpose of helping to hold the formed cakes together. Additionally, it is also possible to use a wide variety of other binding agents such as lards and other animal and vegetable fats but these have the disadvantage of either being more expensive or requiring the additional use of preservatives because of their shorter shelf lives, both of which unnecessarily add costs to the production of the present invention. Since one of the most attractive features of the present invention is its extremely low cost of production and delivery, any unnecessary additional cost works strongly against its intended purpose and functionality.
The bean cakes are formed by placing the ingredients into a series of individual compartments within a raw material bin that is located either adjacent to or as a part of the bean press. From the raw material bin, the cracked beans and rice are metered out in the proper proportions into the interior of the bean press where they are mixed together and then fed into a heat source. The heat source serves to bring the mixture to a predetermined temperature which is critical to the formation of the present invention. The reason for this is that a dry edible bean has the commonly known property of obtaining a certain degree of elasticity at a relatively high temperature which aids in the binding process with the other ingredients when the mixture is put under pressure.
Once the proper temperature of the beans has been obtained, the bean and rice mixture is then combined and mixed with the binder and supplement and is fed into the high pressure portion of the bean press. The press forms the mixture into short cylindrical objects that closely resemble hockey pucks by encasing a specified portion of the mixture within a mold and applying somewhere between five (5) tons per square inch and ten (10) tons per square inch to the mold. This amount of pressure compresses the ingredients and the elastic nature of the beans and the action of the binding agent work to hold them together in the form described above.
Once the ingredients have been formed into the bean cake within the bean press, they are placed on a conveyor belt which carries them out of the press for cooling to ambient temperature and transport to a holding container located at the end of the conveyor. From here the cakes can be packaged and stored for later shipping to an area where a highly nutritious and readily accessible food source is needed such as famine or disaster locations.
For a better understanding of the present invention reference should be made to the drawings and the description in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the present invention.